The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center Paperback – October 17, 2008
Author: Visit Amazon's Charles R. Morris Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0393334007 | Format: PDF, EPUB
The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center – October 17, 2008
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From Publishers Weekly
To get a nuts-and-bolts understanding of heart surgeons—from the decisions they make in the operating room to the impact of colleagues, patients and pharmaceutical companies on their jobs—Morris (The Tycoons) embedded himself for six months in the elite cardiac surgery center at Columbia-Presbyterian hospital in New York City. Unlike some noncardiac surgeries where music blares in the operating room, an aortic valve replacement for a retired pharmacy executive, says Morris, is a solemn affair, the calm briefly interrupted only when the patient fibrillates, his heart muscle fibers fluttering irregularly. The author finds it exhilarating to watch as a surgeon basically built... a new heart for a five-day-old baby with a major heart malformation. But even technical marvels can't save a desperately ill four-year-old girl after a heart transplant. The reserved Craig Smith, the unit's head, who gained national fame when he performed a quadruple bypass on former President Clinton, impresses readers with his skill and deep concern for his patients. From detailing the workings of the heart's chambers and valves to the bald economics of cardiac surgery—including Smith's income ($1.5 million in 2004), the hospital's billing and collection procedures and forecasts on universal health insurance—Morris masterfully breaks down complex jargon, procedures and policies for a lay audience. (Oct.)
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--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
An ambitious account...riveting and clarifying. -- Pauline W. Chen, The New York Times Book Review
Told with the drama and pace of television fiction...an unprecedented look at the surgeons who hold our hearts in their hands. -- Paul Offit, author of Vaccinated
Told with the drama and pace of television fiction...an unprecedented look at the surgeons who hold our hearts in their hands. -- Paul Offit, author of Vaccinated
See all Editorial Reviews
Books with free ebook downloads available The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center – October 17, 2008
- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (October 17, 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 9780393334005
- ISBN-13: 978-0393334005
- ASIN: 0393334007
- Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.5 x 8.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #397,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Surgeons is an intriguing glimpse into the lives and work of the heart surgeons at New York's Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, one of the world's top cardiac surgery centers.
Author Charles Morris provides an intimate look at the work of these virtuosos who hold lives in their hands every day. We get to know such artisans as Craig Smith, head of cardiothoracic surgery, who is well-known for doing the quadruple bypass on former President Bill Clinton; Eric Rose, a cardiothoracic surgeon and chairman of the Department of Surgery; Mehmet Oz, senior adult cardiac surgeon, well-known author of three New York Times best-sellers, and regular contributor on Oprah; and many others, whose names will be better known as a result of this book.
From his unparalleled access to attend surgeries and meetings, Morris gives us an incredibly insightful view into how these surgeons think. It's a real-world, insider's look at the people, problems, and politics in a major hospital. As an example, he explores the politics between the surgeons and the interventional cardiologists, and talks about how their disciplines are converging.
The book tackles a variety of topics, from how the heart works and the history of heart surgery to health care policy and directions for high tech medicine. It even explores the innovative new business models pursued by Columbia-Presbyterian. An intriguing bit of trivia that Morris reveals is that Thomas J. Watson, former chairman of IBM, made a personal project of financing and developing the heart-lung bypass machine, which is still used today in many open-heart surgeries.
Morris excels at sharing the stories of surgeries and the patients benefiting from them. We get an intimate look at patients that made it and those that didn't.
With amazing detail, "The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center" provides a view of many behind-the-scene challenges of modern cardiac surgery. I spent four days as a patient in the cardiac unit at New York's Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital while author Charles Morris shadowed surgeons "unrestricted" in the same unit for an entire year.
It is quite fascinating to read what doctors are thinking, feeling and doing while life is literally in their hands. Cardiac surgery is one of the few procedures in which, at every moment, "the patient is at risk of sudden death." As a result of many long years of medical training and incredible sacrifice, cardiothoracic surgeons provide their patients the gift we all crave, longevity and quality of life.
Charles Morris writes a fascinating description of what happens once a heart patient is anesthetized on the operating table. Prep work takes about an hour. The patient is "shaved, and painted almost head to toe with bright red antiseptic; various monitoring leads and hookups are affixed around the body, breathing and imaging tubes pushed down the throat, a flow monitoring catheter is threaded through the jugular vein" into the heart, and a urinary catheter into the bladder. The patient is wrapped with yards and yards of sterile tape and gauze and "eyes are taped shut."
When Columbia-Presbyterian heart surgeon Craig Smith, MD recently opened my chest, the mitral and aortic valves were beyond repair with healed endocarditis and a worn out aortic root. In 8.5 hours of surgery, Dr. Smith skillfully removed scar tissue and replaced both valves with bovine (cow) tissue and the aorta with a 28mm graft.
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